June 26, 2009

City Hall to dip into parking meter rainy day fund to balance budget

The Daley administration will have to further dip into proceeds from the city's much-maligned parking meter lease to cover a budget shortfall that could soar as high as $300 million before the year’s out, city officials said today.

Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold said the city expected to use some of a $320 million rainy day fund created earlier this year after a private operator paid $1.15 billion upfront to lease the parking meters for 75 years. Just how much the city will pull from that fund, set up to get the city through the recession, is not yet clear, he added.

Saffold made his remarks after the City Council Finance Committee signed off on a plan to force 3,700 non-union workers to lose 15 days' pay before year’s end. The full council is scheduled to vote on that plan Tuesday.

If approved, workers will have to take six unpaid furlough days---or one a month---during the rest of the year. They also will lose pay for six remaining holidays. Non-union workers also will have to take off without pay three “reduced-service” days: the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.

Employees who earn $35,000 or less will not have to take the six furlough days. Altogether, the city expects to save $14 million by forcing the 15 unpaid days.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the city’s 33,000 workers are members of more than 40 unions that continue to negotiate with the city over potential contract concessions, Saffold said. The unions face a July 15 deadline before 1,504 layoffs would go into effect.

Even with layoffs, union concessions, or some combination of the two, the city still won’t save enough money to close a shortfall of between $250 and $300 million, Saffold said. That’s why the city plans to dip into the "budget stabilization fund," commonly called the rainy day fund, to pay this year’s expenses, Saffold said.

The city already used $100 million in parking meter lease revenue from a “mid-term budget relief fund” to cover last year’s budget shortfall, and it plans to use $50 million of those funds to cover expenses this year. It also is using $86.2 million in revenue from the lease of the Chicago Skyway toll road to balance the budget this year.

Also bolstering city spending is a $126 million downpayment the city kept after a deal to lease Midway Airport for 99 years for $2.5 billion fell through.

Of the city's $1.15 billion in parking money, $400 million has been placed in a long-term reserve fund. But the rest could be spent by the end of 2012 if the economy remains lousy.

In 2005, the city leased the Skyway for $1.83 billion—an amount that analysts have praised as a good deal. Of that, $500 million has been placed in a reserve fund.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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